A historical note on Pavia

(by Andrea Moro)

The University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia is the last step of a long-lasting higher education process started in 825 A.D. when Lothair I, Emperor of the Romans and King of Italy, appointed Pavia, the ancient capital of the Lombard kingdom, as the prime higher educational center for northern Italy. This process included the foundation – in 1361 by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV – of the "Studium Generale” which was granted the same privileges enjoyed by the University of Bologna and Paris and came to be known as the "Università di Pavia”, which became the sole University of the Duchy of Milan. After the decadence during the Spanish domination, the University prestige was restored by Maria Theresa Sovereign of Austria and Holy Roman Empress, who included Lombardy within the Austrian Empire – in fact, Lombardy remained the southern border of the Austrian Empire until 1861. For many centuries the Università di Pavia remained as the sole University in Lombardy up to 1923 when the Università Statale di Milano was funded by Mussolini.

Nowadays, the so-called "Pavia University system" provides a unique offer for more than 26.000 students, including a choice of “Collegi Universitari”. Among them: the Almo Collegio Borromeo and the Collegio Ghislieri, both established in the 16th century by Saint Charles Borromeo and Pope Ghislieri, respectively. They are now 15, hosting almost 2.000 students, and they offer a unique opportunity of study and cultural enrichment in a multidisciplinary and multiethnic environment. The University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia involves highly selected undergraduate students, enrolled in the University of Pavia, and hosted by the “collegi di merito”, and graduate students as well.

The prestige of the University of Pavia across centuries is witnessed by the presence of renowned scholars. Just to focus on science, we can mention a few of the famous professors who taught at the University of Pavia: Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576), who invented the "Cardan joint", a fundamental mechanical device; Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), the inventor of the battery; Antonio Scarpa (1752-1832), who gave his name to many anatomical parts such as "the Scarpa triangle", and the Nobel Laureate Camillo Golgi (1843-1926), who invented the so-called "black reaction", which displayed the ramified structure of nerve cells and thus allowed us to see the neurons for the first time; he also discovered cellular microstructures including the famous "Golgi complex". Curiously, Albert Einstein lived for a short time in Pavia when he came to visit his family who run an electrical engineering factory locally.

Pavia is also an important reference point for religious and philosophical traditions: here, Saint Augustine and Boethius are buried, both in the marvellous church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro. During his detention in Pavia, Boethius wrote the De consolatione philosophiae and worked on the first translation of Plato's and Aristotle's texts into Latin, thereby also giving us two foundational terms of linguistics and logic, i.e. subiectum and praedicatum. Other important monuments include: San Michele Maggiore, where the Lombard kings were crowned; the Duomo (Pavia Cathedral) whose project was elaborated by Donato Bramante and evaluated by Leonardo da Vinci; the most beautiful example of Lombard gothic, namely the church of Santa Maria del Carmine; the “Castello Visconteo” (Visconti Castle), funded by Galeazzo II Visconti, Ruler of Milan, where Petrarch was hosted in the XIV century and had access to the Biblioteca Visconteo-Sforzesca, one of the largest and most prestigious libraries of Europe at that time: here Petrarch could consult, among other books, a copy of the Comedy by Dante Alighieri.